Thank you, Dawn. Very helpful comments, as always. You should seriously start your own gardening blog!

Since the maple is not mine about all I can do is make suggestions, but it is the first thing I see when I walk out our front door, so I have an interest in it looking nice..

Well, I’m all in on the figs, since I stopped by the nursery after work today and saw they had 2 gallon Brown Turkey figs for half off. I couldn’t resist the good deal and bought 3 of them, so I’ll be putting them in the ground in the next day or so, but I’ll wait a bit and see if anyone else has any more suggestions.

Thanks again, Dawn.

Hi Eric, You're so welcome, and you are so kind. It is so nice to see you here!

If I had my own gardening blog, I'd spend all my time blogging and not gardening, so I think I'll stick to GW and to our Oklahoma Facebook gardening groups. (If you want to join one or two of the Facebook groups, let me know and I'll tell you their names---I know a bunch of the Admins and they are great people.)

I think you'll like the figs. They are really attractive even when not fruiting. I hope they do well for you.

Dawn

This post was timely for me, Eric and Dawn. I purchased some fig cuttings this spring and have one small plant. I've been waffling over where to plant them and have been considering a spot on the south side of our house (very near the SW corner.) Will probably do it this weekend, as we're expecting cooler temps and it has had a pampered life on the front porch so far. Now, to locate some mulch...

Carol

Carol, That sounds like a great place to plant it. I prefer southern and southwestern exposures close to buildings for figs because the structure and reflected sunlight/heat off the house in winter help protect them a bit from winter cold. The fig tree I have out in the back garden with nothing to shelter it from cold winds/cold weather (except for mulch) freezes back to the ground a lot more often (and a lot more easily) than the same variety of fig that I have on the southeast side of the garage.

Just a tip here if you have gophers or voles: they love to eat fig tree roots. I planted garlic (I never harvest from this planting, just let it keep enlarging....) in a ring around the back garden's fig tree after voles began to attack its roots in its second year, and the voles never have bothered it again. Daffodils work in the same protective way.

Dawn

Thanks so much for that tip, Dawn! We are really having fits with them the last couple of years.

You're welcome! I don't often have moles, but gophers show up occasionally, and our wooded acreage is heavily infested with pine voles who love to come to the garden and eat the roots of almost everything I grow. The voles have turned gardening into much more of a battle than it used to be here.